Ernst Haenchen

Ernst Haenchen (born December 10, 1894 in Czarnikau , Province of Posen , † April 30, 1975 in Münster ) was a German Protestant theologian .

Life

Ernst Haenchen grew up as the youngest son of an administrative officer together with his two siblings in the West Prussian district town of Czarnikau. In 1914 he began studying theology at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin, which he had to interrupt in the same year after the outbreak of the First World War . The loss of his right leg as a result of a war injury sustained in 1918 influenced his further career. In 1926 he finished his theology studies at the University of Tübingen . He gave up his first pastor after a serious fall due to his disability and decided to devote himself entirely to science. He returned to the University of Tübingen, where he began teaching as a private lecturer in systematic theology in 1926 .

In 1928, a tuberculosis disease forced a two-year stay in Davos, Switzerland . There he met his future wife Marguérite Fahrenberger (1905–1990), the daughter of the Davos pastor Johannes Fahrenberger. In 1933 Haenchen was appointed full professor of systematic theology at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen , where he was elected dean of the theological faculty that same year. On March 24, 1939, he moved to the University of Münster , again to the chair of systematic theology. After the University of Münster was closed due to the war in 1944, Ernst Haenchen stayed again in Davos, Switzerland until 1948 to cure his tuberculosis again. During this time he wrote his first major scientific work, a commentary on the Acts of the Apostles , which soon made him known in theological circles. The work, first published in 1956, was quickly sold out and was updated and supplemented again and again by the author until his death for the following editions. His comment on The Way of Jesus was also very well recognized. An explanation of the Gospel of Mark and its canonical parallels, 1966.

Ernst Haenchen was briefly a member of the German Christians in 1933 , but after the so-called " Sportpalast rally " on November 13, 1933, Reinhold Krause , chairman of the German Christians in Greater Berlin, saw a "departure of German Christianity from its Jewish roots" demanded, left again. On February 13, 1939, he joined the NSDAP - probably in the run-up to his appointment as full professor at the University of Münster a month later - which is why he lost his professorship in Münster in 1945. A proper retirement took place in 1946. As an emeritus, Haenchen continued to teach for a number of years at the University of Münster. During this time, Gerd Presler did his doctorate on Sören Kierkegaard with him. Shortly before his death he completed the text of his second major work, which was only published posthumously, a commentary on the Gospel according to John .

Ernst Haenchen was the uncle of the photographer Karl Ludwig Haenchen .

Fonts

• The question of certainty in young Augustine (Tübingen studies on systematic theology; 1), Stuttgart 1932.
• People and State in the teaching of the Church. In: People. Country. Church. A course of the theological faculty in Giessen. Publishing house by Alfred Töpelmann, Giessen 1933.
• The message of the Gospel of Thomas. Töpelmann Theological Library; 6, Berlin 1961.
• God and man. Collected Essays. Tübingen 1965.
• The way of Jesus. An explanation of the Gospel of Mark and the canonical parallels (Töpelmann Collection. 2nd row: Theologische Hilfsbücher; 6), Berlin 1966 (2nd complete and combined edition 1968).
• The Bible and us. Collected essays . Second volume, Tübingen 1968, ISBN 3-525-51634-7 .
• The Gnosis. Volume I: Testimonies of the Church Fathers . Introduced, translated and explained by Werner Foerster with the assistance of Ernst Haenchen and Martin Krause. Zurich 1969 (reprint 1995), ISBN 3-7608-1105-1 .
• The Acts of the Apostles. Critical-exegetical commentary on the New Testament by Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer . Edited by Ferdinand Hahn; 3, Göttingen 1977 (16th edition, 7th, comprehensive and linked edition of this new edition), ISBN 3-525-51634-7 .
• The Gospel according to Thomas / as literal translation as possible by Ernst Haenchen. Neu-Isenburg 1979 ISBN 3-920947-27-4 .
• The Gospel of John - a commentary. From the posthumous manuscripts, ed. by U. Busse with a foreword by JM Robinson. Tübingen 1980, ISBN 3-16-143102-2 .

literature

• Apophoreta: Festschrift for Ernst Haenchen on his 70th birthday on December 10, 1964 , published by Walther Eltester (magazine for New Testament science and the knowledge of the older church / supplements; 30), Berlin 1964

Individual evidence

1. ^ President of the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and the Giessen University Society (November 1983). Egon Wöhlken; Manfred Messing; Annedore Kübe (eds.). The National Socialist University . Giessen University Gazette. Volume XVI Issue 2. Brühlsche Universitätsdruckerei Gießen. pp. 15-16.

Web links

• Literature by and about Ernst Haenchen in the catalog of the German National Library